He is one of the country's most reviled sex offenders, and he escaped justice. Jimmy Savile worked for the BBC as a DJ and presenter from 1964, and ruthlessly used his stardom to become possibly the most prolific paedophile in British history.
Savile is said to have had around 500 victims. When a mass of allegations emerged against Savile after his death in October 2011, aged 84, his family had his £4000 headstone overlooking the sea at Scarborough removed, and he now lies in an unmarked grave.
Savile lived in the Bury New Road area of Salford and forged his reputation as a DJ working at dance halls in Manchester and Salford. He had arrived in Manchester in 1957, and quickly employed one of his greatest talents – being noticed.
Wearing expensive smart suits, see-through shirts, pockets stuffed with pound notes, and smoking fat cigars, Savile, then 31, became one of the best-known faces on the city’s nightclub scene. He was assistant manager of the Plaza dance hall on Oxford Road and had the idea of putting on lunchtime dance sessions for young office workers. Soon teenagers were bunking off school so they could see the charismatic Savile spinning the latest US hits.
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Savile left Manchester to work for Radio Luxembourg and pirate radio station, Radio Caroline, where his reputation grew. He returned in 1964 and presented the very first edition of Top of the Pops from the BBC’s studios in Dickenson Road, Rusholme - and featured in the last in 2006.
At the height of his fame in the 60s, with his platinum-dyed hair, and zany persona, he lived in a modest flat in Great Clowes Street, Higher Broughton, where he was often seen sitting outside on the steps chatting to passers-by.
But it would appear even before showbiz, knighthood, and friendships with royalty, his depraved. evil side had appalling consequences for some living in Manchester and Salford.
Shocking details of how Savile abused at girl at Prestwich Hospital emerged as part of Operation Yewtree, run by the Metropolitan Police into allegations against him. And the M.E.N has obtained a report which lays bare the disturbing details.
The report reveals how on November 28th 2013 Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, which ran Prestwich Hospital at the time, received correspondence from the Department of Health 'into matters relating to Jimmy Savile'.
It stated that in the course of investigations already underway (in association with Operation Yewtree) in 13 other NHS hospitals relating to Savile, the Metropolitan Police Service (“MPS”) had disclosed further information relating to new hospitals. Specifically the MPS had passed information to the Department of Health that related to Savile and Prestwich Psychiatric Hospital.
The information provided related to an allegation from a member of the public and did not refer to any patient related issues or concerns. The allegation referred specifically to a period in or around 1960, when a woman alleged that she was brought onto the Prestwich Hospital site and sexually abused by Savile.
This pre-dates Savile’s career with the BBC but he was already well known locally. The Trust commissioned its own investigation into the claims in December 2013.
The Trust's investigation team approached the complainant to see if she would be willing to meet to talk about the allegations. Although initial contact was made with her and pursued, the Trust was unable to meet with her and so relied on the statements she had already provided. The woman did however consent to the Trust publishing information from her statements to the police in their report.
The investigation by the Trust into the woman's claims concluded that the "alleged incidents are likely to have occurred." She had also alleged that she was abused by Savile while a patient at Booth Hall Children's Hospital in Blackley after routine surgery. She alleged that the trip to Prestwich was partly to intimidate her to remain silent about that abuse.
The report says: “The witness statement provided to the MPs alleges that she was brought to the Prestwich Psychiatric Hospital site when she was about seven or eight years old by Savile along with another unidentified male. The visit was used as a threat to her in so far as if she disclosed the abuse she was being subjected to she would be brought back to the hospital and locked away with the patients.”
It adds: “(She) describes being taken to a room at the back of the hospital site by Savile and another unidentified male. The ward smelt horrible, had excrement everywhere and had within it naked male patients. (She) alleges she was told by Savile that if she ever told anyone about the abuse she was suffering she would be brought back and locked in the room with the men.”
It adds: "On a separate occasion she alleges she was brought to the Prestwich Psychiatric Hospital site again by Savile and another unidentified male and taken onto an empty ward with beds. (She) does not recall there being any staff on the ward. She was then sexually abused by Savile in the empty ward. She adds that she knew it was Prestwich Psychiatric Hospital as it was near where she lived and then goes on to describe that it was a massive place."
The report explained: “The absence of any perimeter security at the time would have meant that is was feasible for Savile to have brought her onto the hospital site without being stopped or challenged. To take her onto a ward he would have needed the assistance of a key holding member of staff. This could have been any one of the large number of staff who held the keys to the male wards.
“From her reference to 'a room at the back of the hospital' ‘ and her description of the environment and the patients, it appears most likely that the ‘room’ was located on one of the male wards on the Annexe” the report says.
It added that, although treatment for mental health patients had moved forward, at this time “there would still have been large numbers of patients, especially on the Annexe wards, who were receiving no effective treatment for their mental disorders. Some of these patients would have been chronically psychotic and/or severely confused and the way some of them presented would have been consistent with her recollection that they were 'absolutely out of it'"
“It is unlikely that patients would have been walking around naked in the main ward area but there were communal bathrooms on the male wards where patients could have been naked, and there were occasions when patients were incontinent of faeces and needed to be cleaned,” the report states.
It adds: “Thus her description of there being excrement everywhere and men, some of whom were naked, walking in it would be consistent with what could have been happening on one of the wards at a particular moment in time.”
In relation to the girl being taken to a ward, the report states “During the day the dormitories could have been empty as patients undertook activities away from the ward, so if she had been taken into one of the dormitories it might well have appeared to be an empty ward and it is conceivable that there could have been no-one else around.”
In conclusion the report says: “Although there are no witnesses who can verify or refute the account it is the considered view of the investigation team that the alleged incidents are likely to have occurred.
"This is supported by the correlation between the description of the site and the environment provided by (her) with the documentary evidence available and the witness testimony of the two former staff members.
“Taken in the context of what we know about Prestwich Hospital in the early 1960s, there is nothing in (her) statements that would cause us to question the veracity of her account of what happened. It appears most likely that the abuse will have taken place on one of the male wards on the Annexe. This conclusion is made because of the description from (her) about the site and the buildings and what we know from the witness statements about the functioning of the site and the type of patients that were located in the Annexe at that time."
Approached by the Manchester Evening News, Prestwich Hospital declined to comment further.
An independent report published In February 2015 concluded Savile abused 63 people at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Buckinghamshire. But allegations that he abused children at two hospitals in Rochdale could not be corroborated, separate reports found.
Savile abused victims aged from eight to 40 at Stoke Mandeville between 1968 and 1992, according to the report published by Department of Health. Its lead investigator Dr Androulla Johnstone said the victims were ‘patients, staff, visitors, volunteers and charity fundraisers’.
She stated he raped an eight-year-old visitor ten times, one of ten victims under the age of 12. Following previous reports Savile had sex with corpses at the hospital, the report detailed evidence from a former nurse who described her anger when she saw Savile in the mortuary and that people in authority has allowed him to be there.
Some 14 other reports into allegations Savile abused people at other hospitals were published. Investigators could find no evidence to corroborate allegations Savile abused children at Birch Hill Hospital in 1965 or at Rochdale Children’s Hospital in the 1970s and 80s.
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